Some modellers may find the following interesting. 24 years ago I had a lengthy chat by phone with Ken Norris. At the time I was making my first model of K7 using model boat magazine plans, not the best by any means but that's all there was available at the time. We chatted about the chamfers, amongst many other aspects of the boat, on the sponsons and he suggested I do away with them to assist stability at speed. The chamfer was designed to reduce wetted areas as she rose onto the very back edge of the sponsons. I have made three models of K7 and have not included the chamfer on any. On the other hand I know someone who has made a 1/12th scale Touchwood kit and left the chamfer on and the model runs well. A gas turbine powered model running at speed needs to be predictable, flipping it over is not going to do the engine any good at all. Not so much of a problem with small electric motor powered models that can be sealed up.

My son will insist in putting photos on here from time to time but no matter. Looking at the one showing the back of the model you can see the amount of detail I was able to produce because of my visits to see the wreck. I believe its fairly accurate and includes details of the small plate near the water brake. Having seen K7 rebuilt it is very apparent that some aspects of the front of the model are not correct, if I live long enough I may rectify that. There are better exact scale modellers than me around however what I do is get scale models to work well at speed and be representative of the full size boat. I once wrote an article in which I said you can get a plank of wood to move under RC but getting high speed models to run well is a whole different ball game. Joergs 200 mph fast electric boat is an example of what knowledge and ability can achieve.

BTW as a makem by birth and thus a Sunderland supporter I have barely forgiven him, and now my grandson, for supporting Middlesbrough
I love saying 1937 -1973 whenever we discus football, it gets my grandson wound up.

a couple more. BTW I borrowed the plugs from Fred Harris, of replicast fame and a top exact scale modeller to produce the model. Note the two rudders one forward one at the rear.(Fred produced static models)l

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Getting Miss England 11 model to run correctly was a challenge. The rudders and drive shaft etc are all exact scale. It took me ages to get them right and several ended up in the bin. Having a lathe helped.

BTW I go long periods when I am not very active due to health problems so forgive me when I feel okay I tend to post a lot of I hope interesting stuff.

Just a thought for all the modellers out there. I would be happy to open the workshop on a Sunday on our day off if a group of you wanted to get organised to visit. You could measure and photograph and I could talk you through all the shapes that modellers get wrong most of the time. Maybe our chief of anal widgetry, Mike, would also come in to run a master-class on how to get the details spot on?

Thanks for those Ernie. A stunning model.
I chatted to Fred many years ago, he told me he only made 4 models of ME II in 1/12. It was a shadow over a metre long. Kevin Desmond had 1 of those models, there is a pic of him holding it on his book about the boat. Stuart Delf of Touchwood was in the process of producing it, but last I spoke to him about it, he said it would work out too expensive to sell & had shelved it for now.

Thank you for the kind comment. I believe the one I made was the only working model. One of the most difficult parts was making the top look like it was canvas covered. I can understand why Stuart has not pursued it. One issue would be the running hardware. Its such a prominent part of the boat it needs to be right. The rear rudder is particularly difficult to make as a working version at scale. As there is a very limited market I think a custom set of scale hardware would be very expensive to produce. Much cheaper and more easily produced in resin for a static showcase model. Hardware aside I understand Stuarts reluctance to produce kits.

Stuart at Touchwood has stopped producing the K3 and K4 kits I think because very few were sold. Perhaps its his experience with K3 and K4 that has influenced his decision re ME11. Its about 24 years ago that I was asked by Stuart to convert one of his K4 kits into a working model, I did and an article was published in MMI about the conversion (the first one done of the K4 model). Another difficult scale model to get the performance and stability right. I also did K3 for him and then the K7. I still have the very first Touchwood K7 converted to RC, its actually my grandsons now, hes 12, however I am looking after it, although he keeps asking for it back.(there's a bit of a story about his cat and the top of a wardrobe !)

Rich Marsh, a friend of myself and my son, was up visiting us yesterday. He's a real model boat enthusiast in particular all things Bluebird. 10 years ago, when he about 14, Rich bought the K4 I converted and still has it.(I recently made another one for my son-exact scale hardware) He's also got an extremely fast Touchwood K7 using uptodate technology. Mike B will be happy to note that Rich has used the exact colour 'bluebird' paint for his models. We compared the colours of his models with my sons 1/6th scale K7 painted with Ford Fyord blue, most folks would not know the difference. Rich is currently building a Speedline 1/8th K7 to be fitted with a gas turbine engine. Impressive detail built into the mouldings. Yesterday I contacted Adrian at Speedline to discus my forthcoming article. He mentioned he's thinking about retiring and selling up. If he does its a big loss to the model trade.

BTW I may try to buy back ME11 I sold. (sold it, and the others, at a particularly bad time in my life)

I told Stuart i'd love an ME II kit, she's the best looking boat imo.
I had all 3 1/12 kits, sold K3 & K4 & had K7 built. I took it to the meeting at Coniston in iirc 2001 & Gina signed the bottom. Unfortunately had to sell it when I went through bad times. Never seen or heard anything about it since. Keep being tempted by another, & to put a detailed Orph into it, but it just takes up too much space to display safely. I've stuck to 43rd scale since, much easier to display.
1 model i'd love to see in the flesh, a 1/8 scale K6 Crusader that is cut away on 1 side. There's a couple of low res shots online. Apparently not in the UK but seriously stunning work.